This volume presents the results of a pioneering anthropological documentation of hitherto unknown traditions of sacred music performed by marginalised musicians and priest-musicians of the Bora Sambar region of western Odisha. The work is based on ethnographic research in rural regions of western Odisha conducted between the years 2002 - 2010. The study presents the first documentation of a unique sound culture of India, Odisha. Local music is analysed as an indigenous theory, thus as a crucial medium of religion, culture and politics.
Lidia Guzy, born in Poland, is a social anthropologist and scientist of religions. Since 2002 she holds a bi-national PhD in Social Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. In 2011 Lidia Guzy finished her postdoctoral thesis ("Habilitation") at Freie Universität Berlin with her work "Marginalised Music - Music, Religion and Politics in Western Orissa". Since end of 2011 she is Lecturer in Contemporary South Asian Religions at Study of Religions Department, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland.
Surendra Kumar Sahu, musician, musical director and local researcher, is Research Assistant to Dr. Lidia Guzy.
